Moja the Artist
By Dr. Roger and Deborah Fouts

Moja enjoyed looking at herself in a mirror in fancy dress. She loved climbing, swinging, running, and playing peekaboo. Her favorite foods included onions and farina. As of Thursday, June 6, 2002, Moja no longer will be able to take advantage of these simple life pleasures. All of us at the Chimpanzee and Human Communication Institute (CHCI), Central Washington University, were devastated to learn that Moja died suddenly, at age 29, after being ill for only two days. She is the only chimpanzee to die at CHCI.

All of the chimpanzees at CHCI have been as upset as the humans. Tatu signed HURT and CRY to us, and Dar has been signing CRY as well. Washoe has seemed very introspective and has sat looking for a long time into the night enclosure area where Moja died. Washoe, abducted from the African jungle to become part of the American space program, was the first nonhuman primate to learn to speak sign language. She also helped Moja grow up when she first came to our facility.

It took Moja about a year to adjust to life at CHCI, mostly as a result of Washoe’s oversight. Once she “came out,” there was no question that she was the chimpanzee who did not know how to act like a chimpanzee. She was described this way in Next of Kin: “Moja was easy to engage if one brought along the right fashion accessories. She was extremely conscious of her appearance, and there was nothing Moja loved better than putting on an old dress, shoes, and makeup and studying herself in the mirror. She insisted on red dresses, but she wasn’t choosy about her footwear. The irrigation boots we wore to clean the cages made her just as happy as party shoes. After she was dressed she would ask us to brush her long hair, which could keep her entertained for hours.” One person told us that while driving by he was so distracted by the sight of Moja in a scarlet negligée swinging around the top of the outdoor enclosure he drove up on the curb!

Painting by Moja entitled “Name This.”

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As far as we know Moja was the first chimpanzee to employ representational art. When she was in Reno and she’d done a drawing, her human companion thought she was wasting paper because it wasn’t filled up. So the paper was returned to her and she was asked to DRAW MORE, to which she replied FINISHED. After this exchange went back and forth for awhile she was asked what she had drawn and she replied BIRD. The schemata she used then was the same one she continued to use later when she drew pictures of birds.

Moja was the first chimpanzee of a second sign language project by Drs. Beatrix T. and R. Allen Gardner and she was born in captivity at the Laboratory for Experimental Medicine and Surgery in Primates (LEMSIP). Hence, her full name was Moja Lemsip (“Moja” is the Swahili word for “first”).

In the wild, chimpanzees can live into their forties, but in captivity, many die between ten and fifteen years of age. Although our lives were enriched by knowing Moja, chimpanzees do not belong in captivity. Captivity is not good for them. Our species has yet to learn that lesson.